# 3 Unfamiliar letters

The Greek alphabet contains a few letters with no opposite number in English. An example would be the letter ‘psi’ (ψ, Ψ) which in English has to be represented by a combination of two letters, ‘p’ and ‘s’.

## Activity 4 Letters with no English equivalent

Allow about 5 minutes

Using the table of letters seen earlier (here's the link to the downloadable version again: Alphabet Guide), identify any Greek letters with no English equivalent.

### Discussion

Your list should include at least the consonants:

- θ, Θ (theta)
- φ, Φ (phi)
- χ, Χ (chi)
- ψ, Ψ (psi)

There are also two versions of ‘e’ and ‘o’, a short and a long:

- ε, Ε (epsilon) and η, Η (eta)
- ο, Ο (omicron) and ω, Ω (omega)

Omicron just means ‘little o’ (μικρος, mikros = small), while omega is ‘big o’ (μεγας, megas = large).

You might need to give these letters extra attention in the initial stages of learning the alphabet.

OpenLearn - Getting started on ancient Greek
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